Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-03-31
CHAPTER Y.
QUIET ANNALS

shaped her destiny lnthese minor influences
there will be much that is uneventful.
Events enough will come, however.
Shirley had been taught to think. She
learned that from her father and her teacher.
She was of this nature too: If she saw a
wrong or mistake, she thought first Of all,
Cannot this wrong and this mistake be
rightedl
If she set about any work she considered
within herself, How could it be done IN the
best wayl Having thus considered, she
spared no labor or trouble to accomplish it in
that way. She had learned this also from
the two wise friends who walked with her no
more.
A genius is one who can do all things well.
Whatever Shirley undertook though it were
no more than the planting out of a rose tree,
she did it better than the common run.
So it was with her school From parents
on one side to pupils on the other she found
fronting her jungle of self complacent igno-
rance. To turn the jungle into a garden of
civilization-this was the task that lay be-
fore her.
Her work in the school was so remarkable
that its solid results remain to this day, long
after-well, long after what was to happen
did happen. To this day her old pupils tell,
with tears gathering in their eyes, how much
they owe to Shirley Carstone.
Her school was like her life, light and
shadow. At first she reused i'll will some
times. But by degrees the little mudheads
were warmed and thrilled by her overpower-
ing enthusiasm. The great mudheads at
home felt the glow, till the whole mass was
melted and nodded under her hand.
She recognized that book coming was
small part of education. To train and equip
the child at every point where his after life
will touch that of his fellow man, this was to
educate him. The pure, sweet home life of
the stone house in the days that were van
ished was like guiding star to the girl in her
work. She sought to teach the rude boys in
her charge to be gentle and knightly, as her
father had taught her brothers
The singing of the Carstone children had
been the marvel of Linwood in the old happy
days Their mother had taught them sing
ing, and had taken the greatest pains with
them. 1t had been her delight to assemble
them in the evening for what she called
family concert. Faults she pounced upon
with would-be iron like severity that made
the children laugh at their gentle mother,
while they obeyed her. Did they sound
harsh or false notes She raped them to
stop, with an awful frown.
"Thcre, now!" she said. "Whine through
your noses, do! It's so musical"
Mrs. Carstone had been an enthusiast about
her children's singing. Under her watchful,
loving training, their music became grateful
to the ear and melodious as bird songs
She taught them to read aloud, too. ga
good reader is rarer in America than o good
president" Col Carstone had been accus-
toned to tell his children. There might be
some presidents among the lot, perhaps, but
at any rate he meant there should be several
good readers. So the pretty mother, with
her sweet, clear voice and correct intonations
started reading school among the young ones.
Here, too, she was quite critical, as with their
singing With Tom she had the most trou-
BILE. She mimicked him numerically.
"Your voice sounds like the rattling Of
beans in pod. Here you go! Listen"
All this came indelibly back to Shirley,
when she became teacher on her own ac-
count. She smiled to herself sadly as she
found herself repeating the very expressions
she had heard from her mothers lips. Shirley
Carstone never gave up anything she under
took. In time her pupils learned. Their
young voices took on clear cut, refined tones,
which distinguished them from the ordinary
country side children as though they had been
of different race. Strangers after while
came from far and near to hear the singing
and reading in Shirley's school, It was ma
ture'S own melody.
Another point of especial concern with Col.
Carstone had been that his children should
learn to speak correctly Himself and wife,
both highly cultivated persons, had had their
lot in life cast in the crude, unlettered COM
munity of Linwood. 1t happened SO, and
they could not change it. But he determined
at least that his children's voices should not
glide into the flat, odious dialect Of the aver
age uncultured American To this end sol
many hours were devoted each week to Ian
guage lessons Col. Carstone himself took
charge of these. Mistakes in his children'sI
speech were carefully noted and corrected. /
The regular language lesson brought muchI
merriment among the young ones and their
papa
The father adhered rigidly to his plan as
long as he lived. The daughter unconsciously
adopted it in her school and clung to it.
There was yet one moro matter on which
this accomplished gentleman laid great stress.
That was home politeness. He declared that
home was exactly the place to practice the
highest politeness one knew.
''It's the place where politeness is most
needed" he told his family. "If you wish to
be at ease and graceful, you must learn to be
at ease and graceful at home Practice the
best manner you know constantly, SO as to
make it your own manner. Then you will
never know anything else."
He was as good as his word, too. He was
as chivalrous and deferential to his wife down
to the last of his life as if she had been one of
her own pretty lady friends.
So notable was this in the rustic neighbor-
hood in which they lived that Jim Sweet was
moved to remark to Mis- Simpkins:
"Be goll dinged if ever see man like
Carstone! He's mannerdly to his own wife.
He's as perlite to her as if he wuzn't married
to her!"
'He is, is he?" retorted the peppery grocer
wife. "Well, all I've got to say is that he's
a show in these parts. He ought to be locked
up in glass case and toted around the
country with the circus, ten cents sight!"
Shirley's father had been gracious and
courtly to all the world. He was man who
waspolite to his own children. He saw ahead
of his generation. The new.and better educa-
tional theories which are only now slowly
making their way among thoughtful men
and women he perceived long before, and put
into practice. His children's harmonious de-
velopment was so blended with their plays
that they scarcely knew which was instruc-
ton and which was play.